A temple pattern in the Book of Mormon, Overview

The purpose of this series of posts is to connect Nephi's concept of "the two churches" with shaking/falling [to the dust]/and arising -- a major theme I've encountered in scripture (especially the Book of Mormon). Stisa has already extensively discussed one of the topics I'll be covering, here and here.

First, a little overview of an important temple pattern.

An important pattern from the temple

Modern temple worship in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints teaches us an important pattern:

1. The Purpose -- In the beginning, before the foundation of the world, we lived with God and desired to live with Him and like Him.
2. The Fall -- In order to be "prove[n]" we chose to leave God's presence and come down to a lower realm in which Satan could tempt us.
3. The Angels -- We would not be left helpless, though, as God would send messengers to teach us His ways and administer covenants. 
4. The Fruit (of heeding the voice of angels) -- These messengers would have power over the devil and the knowledge we need to overcome the fallen realm and progress back to God. When we use our agency to choose to bind ourselves to God (through covenanting to obey His commandments), we receive power to bind Satan and can no longer be enticed by his deceitful snares.
5. The Eternal Reward -- "Heed[ing] the word" leads us to knowledge of the mysteries of God and eternal bliss. 

That "lower realm" can be referred to as the telestial kingdom, or the world in which we now live. It is a world of opposites, filled with contrasting elements of good and evil.

Obligatory reference to "dust"

One subtle but vital scriptural symbol related to this lower kingdom is "dust." We've written extensively on this blog about dust. Stisa connects dust to the telestial kingdom in this post. A broad overview of many scriptural lessons about dust can be found here. There is a beautiful gardening double-metaphor in God's seed (His spirit children) being placed in a world of dust and then being offered the word of God (another type of seed) and invited to test that seed (the invitation itself is a test). The result of the test, if we succeed, is twofold:

1. We are gathered back into God's presence (symbolized by the tree of life).
2. We also grow a tree of life inside our heart as we walk the covenant path. (See Alma 32:41-43.)

A double metaphor that begins with two seeds in a context of dust results (when successful) in a new generation of trees, so to speak. (As an aside, in this context, John 10:27-38 takes on added depth.)

A note about "the two churches"

The tree of life is everlasting (see Alma 32:41), just like the work of those divine messengers who engage in the struggle for souls that is happening in the telestial realm.

7 For the time cometh, saith the Lamb of God, that I will work a great and a marvelous work among the children of men; a work which shall be everlasting, either on the one hand or on the other—either to the convincing of them unto peace and life eternal, or unto the deliverance of them to the hardness of their hearts and the blindness of their minds unto their being brought down into captivity, and also into destruction, both temporally and spiritually, according to the captivity of the devil, of which I have spoken. (1 Nephi 14)

The work is binding and eternal in consequence.  We end up "convinc[ed] ... unto peace and life eternal" -- at one again with God, or "deliver[ed] ... into captivity and destruction."

This is not just about good versus evil, either.  The key feature of the church of the Lamb of God is that they are covered by the everlasting covenant.

Nephi does not equivocate on this point as he writes the words of the angel and what he saw in vision:

8 And it came to pass that when the angel had spoken these words, he said unto me: Rememberest thou the covenants of the Father unto the house of Israel? I said unto him, Yea.
9 And it came to pass that he said unto me: Look, and behold that great and abominable church, which is the mother of abominations, whose founder is the devil.
10 And he said unto me: Behold there are save two churches only; the one is the church of the Lamb of God, and the other is the church of the devil; wherefore, whoso belongeth not to the church of the Lamb of God belongeth to that great church, which is the mother of abominations; and she is the whore of all the earth. (1 Nephi 14)

In short, the purpose of mortality is to sift, to sort, and to determine which spirit we each "list to obey." (See Alma 3:26-27.)

Covenants define the church of the Lamb of God

In this passage, Nephi makes it abundantly clear that anyone who does not belong to the church of the Lamb of God belongs by default to the other church.  In a later verse, he gives us some important distinguishing features of the members of the church of the Lamb of God:

14 And it came to pass that I, Nephi, beheld the power of the Lamb of God, that it descended upon the saints of the church of the Lamb, and upon the covenant people of the Lord, who were scattered upon all the face of the earth; and they were armed with righteousness and with the power of God in great glory.

Here's a list:

• the power of the Lamb of God, that it descended upon the saints of the church of the Lamb
• the covenant people of the Lord
• scattered upon all the face of the earth
• they were armed with righteousness
• [they were armed] with the power of God in great glory.

The covenant people of the Lord comprise the church of the Lamb of God. They are defined by their unique commitment to heed the voice of God through covenant-making and covenant-keeping and to ignore all of the other voices of the world.

Summary

In the coming weeks, I'll provide examples of each of the points above from the Book of Mormon.  This temple pattern is undeniably reflected in the worldview of its authors, although I can't come up with a naturalistic explanation for how 23 year-old Joseph Smith could have had this temple/covenant worldview so clearly defined so early in the process of the restoration.